Showing Up for What Matters

People talk a lot about “free time.”

I’m at a point in my life where I honestly don’t know what that means anymore.

I have a wife. I have kids. I have employees. I have responsibilities. And somewhere in there I have a general obligation to try to be a decent human being.

So no, I don’t really have time that’s completely free from obligation.

Now that doesn’t mean I never do things I enjoy. Every once in a while I take a run. I read a book. I watch something dumb that lets my brain reset. Those moments matter. They give you a little oxygen.

But the idea that my time is somehow detached from responsibility? That’s just not reality.

And hey, I’m not complaining about it.

I’m actually glad I feel a sense of obligation to the people in my life. My wife. My kids. The people I work with. The people who count on me.

If I didn’t feel like I owed them effort, attention, and some blood, sweat, and tears… what would that make me?

Probably a pretty self-centered asshole living only for himself.

So no, I don’t really have “free time.”

But I do have a life full of people worth showing up for.

Which reminds me of something King Arthur supposedly told the Knights of the Round Table:

“In serving others, we become free.”